Service Level Agreement
Our undertakings to you as a service user
General
- The Centre will always try to provide a professional and efficient service.
- Our staff should always be polite.
- We will try to respond to messages promptly.
- We will do what we say we will do in our policies.
- We will listen to suggestions.
- We will provide the best services we can with the resources available to us.
Brokerage
- The Centre will provide a brokerage service to Registered Organisations.
- The Centre will regularly contact organisations to update its information on vacancies and requirements.
- The Centre will hold details of vacancies on its database and may advertise them through inclusion in the publications it produces from time to time.
- The Centre can assist an organisation in the writing of task descriptions for vacancies.
- The Centre will attempt to identify volunteers who are willing to volunteer in the positions vacant and once identified will either refer the prospective volunteer to the organisation or contact the organisation to arrange a meeting between prospective volunteer and organisation.
- The Centre interviews most prospective volunteers to determine their areas of interest but does not vet or filter prospective volunteers. Prospective volunteers are referred on the basis of interest. It is the sole responsibility of the VIO to ensure that a prospective volunteer is suitable.
- The Centre does not undertake to perform any police, reference or other checks on prospective volunteers prior to referral or at any time. If such checks are necessary they must be carried out by the VIO. The Centre accepts no liability for the consequences of a failure to ensure that a prospective volunteer is suitable, responsible and otherwise fit to volunteer in the relevant position.
- Occasionally the Centre may contact an organisation to discuss whether or not a prospective volunteer is suitable for a vacancy. For example, this may be because they have disclosed a previous conviction to us which is several years old. The volunteer may have asked us to find out if the conviction will prevent them from filling a particular vacancy.
- The Centre will not offer a brokerage service where registration has been suspended or withdrawn, or has not been fully completed.
- The Centre will not accept vacancies which are not voluntary or which are exploitative.
Advice and support
(Please also see 'good practice' page)
re: policy and best practice
The Centre will provide advice and support to Organisations who want to introduce or update their policies or to change their practices to reflect best practice or who want to take steps to make volunteering more accessible. The appropriate support will vary from organisation to organisation and may be constrained by the availability of staff time. Examples of the kind of support which may be available are listed below.
Provision of guidance material
- Good practice audit in the form of visits to organisations and / or review of existing policy documents
- presentations to staff or governing bodies of organisations about volunteering best practice
- The Centre can advise, provide materials and review but we cannot write your policies for you. Every organisation is different and every organisation needs a policy which suits their needs and which has been written by the people who will put it into practice. We do not currently hold model policies.
Dispute Resolution
The assistance the Centre can give where a dispute between volunteer and VIO is limited and will depend on the individual circumstances, but the Centre is willing to consider in each case how it can help to resolve matters in a mutually satisfactory way. If an organisation wishes the Centre to assist they should contact the Director to discuss the matter.
The Centre makes no commitment to act 'for' one or other side in a dispute but will offer assistance in the interests of promoting good practice in volunteering, for example advising on what may or may not be reasonable in the circumstances, on how resolution may be reached, or acting as an intermediary.
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